Author: ryan

Music

NIN: Ghosts I-IV

Today I bought the new NIN album, Ghosts, an instrumental album that was suddenly released last weekend now that Trent Reznor is a free agent, finally out of his contract with Interscope Records. He’s offering the album up in the following kick-ass options:

FREE: The first quarter of the album (Ghosts I) to download
$5: All 36 tracks (Ghosts I-IV) as a high-quality digital download, includes PDF artwork
$10: The above download now and a 2-CD set to be shipped in April
$75: Deluxe set with 2-CD’s, extra discs, fancy book & packaging
$300: Ultra Deluxe set, limited to 2500 signed copies, which includes the above and more such as the album on vinyl

I picked up the $10 version (call me crazy, but I like having CD’s), however with shipping the total was $16.99. While $6.99 is a bit much just to ship a couple CD’s, it’s still less than most double-CD sets would cost on Amazon. And, unlike Amazon, I got to download the album immediately (something I wish they’d start offering if you buy physical CD’s that they also offer on their MP3 service). I chose the high-quality MP3’s as my download (320kbps LAME encoded, fully tagged, each track even has it’s own artwork) though they offer the album in other, all DRM-free, options.

The album is really good… very good background “listen to while working” music. I’m impressed. And happy with the experience. I’m also personally happy to ‘stick it to the man’ again, much like purchasing Radiohead’s In Rainbows a few months back.

Oh, also, the Ultra Deluxe version reportedly sold out in just a couple days earning Trent & Co $750,000. Nice work.

Gold Dust and the Moon

Tonight Kelly and I joined several others to celebrate our friend D’s birthday at a relatively new bar in Southeast Portland called Gold Dust Meridian. Kelly and I shared the bus down Hawthorne, but were early for the birthday gathering, so we decided to swing into McMenamins Back Stage Bar for a drink before walking down the street.

Gold Dust Meridian is a dimly lit, moderately swanky bar that’s not overpriced and has good food and a decent beer selection (including the delicious Terminal Gravity ESG). The staff were friendly, and our server was both attentive and organized (he had the foresight to preemptively split up the bill for the table by people who’d arrived together, which meant the confusion usually associated with big groups was avoided).

My brother was sitting at Moon & Sixpence and I’d told him I’d stop by, and fortunately Miranda was with us and wanted to go that way herself, so she drove Kelly and I over there and we hung out for a few beers.

Fun night. Needed it pretty badly after the week… the fun of software development and release deadlines never ends. 🙂

Beer Entertainment Food Movies Work

Long week, good weekend, Legend

Post author By ryan
Post date March 2, 2008
No Comments on Long week, good weekend, Legend

Since last weekend’s adventures, I had another long and fairly stressful work week. The weekend was pretty fun though, despite two things: 1) a possible resurgence of some sort of virus (sinus pressure, a sore throat and a cough, dammit), and 2) a friend coming into town on Friday (I say friend, though he’s a total bastard and I hate him, but not really, I just like to pretend I hate him). Started off by going to Mash Tun for some dinner and drinks Friday night along with Snooks and L. Saturday we all met up at Kennedy School in the early afternoon for some drinks, and then went to Delta Cafe (blogged before here) for dinner. I both love and loathe the Delta… the food is really good, but the greasy smell gets woven into both your clothes and your very being. It can be a bit overpowering. The last time I was there I had made the mistake of bringing my wool coat in, and the next morning on the bus I realized that I was ‘that stinky guy’, all because of the greasy scent. This time I wore clothes I could burn later. 🙂

Today the nice weather returned. I spent most of my day relaxing indoors, playing a bit of Call of Duty 4, and watching shows recorded on the DVR. Kelly went to a friends baby shower, and after she got home I drug her to Kennedy School to see I Am Legend at the theater. We’d arrived with just enough time to sit in the Cypress Room for a beer before heading to the theater. The movie was pretty good, and I enjoyed it quite a bit despite the, at times, poor CGI (some of it was pretty bad, though overall I was able to get past a lot of it and it didn’t distract me). The representation of a vacant and dead city (with nature taking back what’s ‘hers’ with grass coming through the streets, deer running free, etc), and the main character’s almost super-human ability to avoid insanity in the face of near total solitude was well done. Overall I though it was pretty good, and well worth seeing on the ‘big screen’ for a few dollars, with some beer and popcorn.

Beer General Travel

Vista House & Edgefield

After getting back from the mountain yesterday safe and sound, getting home by 7, and being really tired and going to bed around 9:30pm (my sick still having some sway over me), Kelly and I woke up just before 8am this morning. We both sat around a bit, I cleaned my office a bit, played some Call of Duty 4, and then around 1pm Kelly and I decided to go do something.

We left the house and drove to the Vista House at Crown Point, a spot I’ve been wanting to visit for several years now. The drive was pretty quick (I think it only took us about 45 minutes) and it was a gorgeous day (yes, there is a pun in there). Arriving to Crown Point is great, you turn this corner on the old highway and suddenly there is this great old building overlooking the gorge. The view is really quite stunning, especially on a clear day like today, looking down onto the Columbia river and over to Washington state. Vista House itself is also worth seeing. Built in 1918 as a rest stop along the old highway, it both manages to blend in with it’s surrounding environment and serve as a platform to take in the surrounding beauty. It was VERY windy and cold up there however, so Kelly and I didn’t spend a lot of time gazing at the scenery. We did enjoy wandering around the gallery area underneath though, where there were several old photos of the building from days past.

After leaving Crown Point, Kelly and I drove along the old Historic Columbia River Highway to Troutdale (rather than going back to I-84) and went to McMenamins Edgefield for some drinks. Had a really nice time walking around the property, sipping on beers (at one point I encouraged Kelly go get a nice wine at the wine cellar bar). We wandered around / sat around for a couple hours before heading back homeward. We’re now sitting in another McMenamins establishment (Kennedy School) as I write this post. Had a great day, and am feeling a lot better, however I’m pretty sure beer has a lot to do with that.

Work

On the mountain

Today SuperSweetCo took the whole company back up to the Mount Hood (read last year’s story). I woke up at 5:15am, got cleaned up, and walked to a coworker’s place to catch a ride into town by 6:30am. Last year there was one bus, however this year there were two due to SuperSweetCo’s explosive growth. Despite all the extra people and two busses, we drove away earlier than we did last year (7:15am) and arrived at Mt. Hood Meadows by 8:45am, and I got myself sat down in the same lodge room as last year. This year however, due to my week of sick, I opted not to go out and exert myself but to just hang out, so I brought my laptop and have been just surfing the net, attempting to play some games, and chatting with the other folks who weren’t hitting the slopes. The schedule is to get back into downtown by 5:30pm.